Throughout Europe, headlines have been dominated by the mysterious poisoning of a retired British spy of Russian origin Sergey Skripal who is currently hospitalised in England. The issue will now be brought before the UN Security Council by the UK government in a session which will shortly convene.

But old spies mysteriously dying, without any evidence pointing to would-be assailants, is an issue that pales in comparison to the fact that the Turkish population of the EU which is over 5.5 million, is now under direct threat from radical Kurdish terrorists who have begun taking their campaign of terror from Syria, Iraq, Iran and Turkey to the heart of Europe.

On Monday, Kurdish terrorist groups firebombed two mosques in Germany, one in the capital of Berlin and another in Lauffen am Neckar. Additionally, Turkish cultural centres and shops were also torched. Far from being isolated incidents, radical Kurdish social media has been filled with pledges to commit violence in Europe against both Turkish and non-Turkish targets, while the first of these planned attacks have already commenced, targeting Turkish political and civilian sites in Germany and France.

Irrespective of who was behind the poisoning of Sergey Skripal, the issue of wide-scale radical Kurdish terrorism is a far more substantial issue for European security than a single isolated incident that has not materially endangered the general public in any European state. The promise of radical Kurdish terrorists to turn Europe into “rubble and ash”, is an incredibly worrying problem that ought to be discussed and addressed both in Europe and at the UN.

Instead of addressing the problem in a proper international forum, the issue of radical Kurdish terrorism is being ignored throughout the EU itself, while the issue of Sergey Skripal has been blown out of all proportion, which serves only to distract from a problem that is as big if not bigger than jihadist attacks and far-right/neo-Nazi extremism.

Perhaps Europe’s insistence on ignoring the problem of radical Kurdish terrorism is not surprising, given that European leaders have so strongly condemned Turkey’s anti-YPG/PKK Operation Olive Branch whose success in the northern Syrian city of Afrin is now insured. President Erdogan has pledged to continue hunting down YPG/PKK terrorists in Turkey and in countries bordering Turkey including Syria and Iraq, in an effort to once and for all end a plague of violence that has claimed more Turkish lives than the total number of fatalities in every incident of terrorism on US soil combined, including 9/11.

But just as Turkey looks to eradicate a terrorist problem in its own region that has posed as grave a danger to civilian lives as Takfiri groups like Daesh and al-Qaeda, Europe continues not only to be oblivious to the problem, but they have systematically taken the side of the PKK aligned YPG in Syria vis-a-vis Turkey.

While Turkey and Syria continue to be at odds diplomatically, the fact of the matter is that radical Kurdish terrorism is a threat to the territorial integrity of not only The Republic of Turkey but also the Syrian Arab Republic, The Republic of Iraq and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Now though, these terrorists have declared war on Europe and Europe instead is standing with a British government that has begun a diplomatic war against Russia, a country which does not threaten the peace in Europe in any way and furthermore, cannot be linked in any legally meaningful way with the illness of the retired double-agent.

In this sense, Russia and Turkey share a similar status in Europe. Both countries are scapegoated for the incompetence of European leaders. This has led to an outbreak of anti-Turkish racism in Europe that President Erdogan has rightly compared to Nazism. Such hateful sentiments will almost certainly also now be directed against Russians in central and western Europe, while Russians in much of eastern Europe have faced racist discrimination for years.

Russia, Turkey and Iran are working collaboratively to bring about a genuine peace for Syria via the Astana format, while Europe continues to abet, excuse and ignore terrorist atrocities on its own soil. In this sense, three powers of the multipolar world are engaged in moves towards peace, while European leaders cling onto a hegemonic colonial mentality that is putting the peace of the wider world in danger.

There is no such thing as a good terrorist or an acceptable terrorist. All responsible states owe it to their citizens to combat and oppose terrorism in all its forms. Instead, European leaders hide being Turkophobia and Russophobia in order to distract their own people from the genuine terrorist threats to their own peace and security.